264 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



all in his estimation, and one of his chief heroes among men, 

 Charles Linnaeus. "He was born," John continues, "in 

 Sweden, in the year 1707, and laid the foundation and 

 arrangement of the science. While yet a mere youth, he 

 was pitched upon by the Academy of Sciences of Upsala, 

 to explore the dreary regions of Lapland. He underwent 

 great hardships [" hargepes " John spells it] in want of 

 books, in want of clothes, in want of bread to eat, even 

 patching up old shoes with the bark of trees. I have even 

 risket my life myself in rivers and lakes [the Loch of Drum 

 being evidently present to his mind], all for knowledge 

 [knowelg]." After speaking of the Linnaean and Jussieuan 

 or Natural systems, and the classes of the former, he 

 observes that in it, the flowers of plants were used as an 

 index to the system " much in the same way as one consults 

 the index of a book, to find a particular chapter or page." 

 He concludes his essay by exclaiming that, in the study of 

 Botany, they would find 



" ' Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 

 Sermons in stones, and good in everything.' " 



He gave discourses more than once on Astronomy, but no 

 notes of these now remain. There exists among his papers 

 also an essay on Weaving, but whether it was prepared for 

 this society or not, it is impossible now to say. After an 

 introduction on the use of clothing "as an indispensable 

 piece of decency, even though the exceeding calmness and 

 serenity of the air might not oblige men to use any pre- 

 caution against it," and on the need of clothing " which 

 begins at the instant of birth ; " he discovers the origin of 

 weaving in " the pretty obvious expedient of interweaving 

 the long and narrow leaves of plants of the grass kind in the 



